50 Fun PE Games Your Students Will Love
by Sara Ipatenco
Kids naturally love PE because it’s a time to be active and play fun games. An essential part of the school day, PE teaches kids the life skill of getting regular exercise. While playing the same old games over and over again can get a bit boring, incorporating a wide variety of games into your lesson plans helps keep PE fun and engaging. With a few PE staples, such as foam balls, hula hoops, and bean bags, your students will be having fun in no time! Here are 50 PE games to get you started.
1. Blob tag
Choose one child to be “it.” As that child tags other children, they link arms or hold hands to create a “blob.” The game continues until the blob has tagged everyone in the game.
2. Chain tag
This is kind of like blob tag, but instead of forming a blob, students must link arms to form a chain.
3. Bean bag balance
Give each student a bean bag. Ask the students to balance their bean bags on various parts of their body, such as their foot or knee. See how long the students can balance before they move off their bean bag falls. Give increasingly hard challenges as you go, such as on the shoulder or the thumb.
4. Clap and catch
Arrange your class into a large circle. Give one player the ball and have them get ready to toss it. Players must clap before they catch the ball. If a student doesn’t clap or drop the ball, they are out.
5. Animal races
Line your PE class up at one end of the gym or playing field for this game. Call out an animal, such as a cheetah or a frog, and students have to race to the other end, running like that animal.
This is another racing game that starts with lining your students up on one end of the playing field. Every time you yell, “jump,” students jump as far as they can. Repeat until the winning player reaches the end of the field or until the whole class finishes.
7. Bridge tag
This game starts as regular tag, but each time a student is tagged he must kneel and form a bridge. Players can rejoin the game when another player crawls under their bridge, which frees them.
8. Crab soccer
This game follows the rules of traditional soccer, but players crab walk instead of regular running.
9. Step back
Put your class into teams of two. Have them stand about three feet apart and roll a hula hoop to each other. Once the other person catches the hula hoop, they must take a large step backward and continue playing. As they get further apart, the game gets more challenging.
10. Freeze tag
This is another tag game that starts out like traditional tag. However, once a student is tagged, they are “frozen” until another player tags them. They can then rejoin the game. The last player to be frozen gets to be “it” on the next round.
11. Parachute change
Arrange your students around a large parachute. Call out things like colors the students are wearing or birthday months. Any player who fits the category you call out has to run under the parachute and switch places with someone else.
12. Parachute volleyball
Have your students arrange themselves around a parachute. One half of the parachute is team A while the other half is team B. Put a beach ball in the middle of the parachute. The objective is to launch the ball off the parachute and over the heads of the opposing team, which scores one point.
13. Banana tag
Spread your students around the play area and choose two kids to be “it.” They are the monkeys. When they tag another student, he turns into a banana and must put both arms straight up above his head. Other players can free the “bananas” by peeling them, which means they pull down one arm and then the other arm.
14. Teacher island
This PE game includes the teacher! Stand on a stool and have a bunch of cones or balls handy. Start throwing them toward the students, who are spread out around you. If a student fails to make a catch, he is out. Play continues until only one student is left.
15. Throw archery
Set up five jump ropes at various distances from where your students will stand. Give them bean bags and have them try to get them past the different jump ropes. The further away the jump rope, the more points the student gets. For example, getting the bean bag past the first jump rope is worth ten points while getting it past the last jump rope is worth fifty points.
16. Crazy moves
Set out several mats around the play area. Start calling out numbers and that number of kids need to find a mat and stand on it together as fast as they can. Any student who doesn’t find a mat is out.
17. Rob the nest
Set up the game by putting a hula hoop (nest) in each corner of the play area and ten or more basketballs in the middle of the play area. Divide the class into 4 teams, one at each hula hoop. Students take turns getting a basketball and dribbling it to their hoop. Any time you blow the whistle, students can steal basketballs from other nests. The winner of each round is the one with the most basketballs when you blow the whistle a second time.
18. Tic-Tac-Throw
Set up nine hula hoops in a 3×3 grid, like a tic-tac-toe board. Make enough grids so you can divide your class into teams of two. Give the teams two different colors of bean bags. The students will throw the bean bags into the hula hoops trying to get three in a row.
19. Bounce into buckets
Set up enough buckets in the middle of the play area that there is one for each group of two kids. At each bucket, have one student on each side. The kids take turns trying to bounce balls into the buckets. Make it more challenging by having the students back up further from the bucket as they go.
20. Backward soccer
Play this game just like you would regular soccer but turn the soccer goals around backward.
21. Speed ball
This PE game combines basketball and soccer. Divide your students into two teams and give them a rubber ball to play with. Play starts with students passing the ball to other players on their team. There is no bounce passing in this game. If the ball hits the floor, the game switches to soccer.
22. Pool noodle archery
Have one student hold up a hula hoop while another child tries to launch pool noodles through the hoop. Once a student gets a noodle through, the players switch places.
23. Kangaroos and Crocs
Divide your class into two teams – one team will be kangaroos and the other team will be crocs. Have the teams line up back-to-back in the middle of the play area. Call out one of the animals. That team will try to make it to the end of the play area without getting tagged by the other team. Anyone tagged sits down and is out. Play continues with additional rounds.
24. Noodle hockey
Play a traditional PE game of court hockey but use pool noodles and a small plastic ball instead of hockey sticks and a puck.
25. Continuity ball
Have your students spread out in the play area. Give them one beach ball and challenge them to keep it from hitting the ground. Gradually add more beach balls until you have several going at the same time.
26. Birds on a branch
Set up two balance beams and split the class into two teams. Have the teams line up on the balance beams and call out directions, such as “stand on one foot” or “put your arms above your head.” If a student falls off the beam, he is out. The winning team is the one who keeps the most “birds” on their branch.
27. Shark zone
Set up mats, hula hoops, and other PE equipment around the gym. Use items that students can stand on or inside of. These are shark-free zones. Identify one or two students as sharks. When you say go, players will run around the gym standing on mats or inside hula hoops to stay away from the sharks. If a student fails to get to a safe area before being tagged, they are out.
28. Cats and mice
Give each student a scarf – one color for cats and one color for mice. Have them tuck the scarves into their back pockets or waistband as tails. Cats will chase mice and mice will chase cats. If the opposite team catches a tail, they keep it. The winning team is the one who steals all the tails first.
29. Tunnels and trains
Choose two students to start out as trains. The rest of the students put their hands and feet on the floor creating a tunnel with their bodies. The trains must crawl through the tunnels. When a train goes through the tunnel, that student joins the tunnel at the front and the next student at the back of the tunnel turns into a train. Play continues until all students have become trains.
30. Noisy running
Explain to students that you will be playing music and the louder the music gets the faster they need to run around the play area. As you turn down the volume, they will slow their running.
31. Freeze dance
Play some upbeat dance music and encourage students to free dance. When you stop the music, they must freeze. Any student who doesn’t freeze is out.
32. Eight dance
Choose one student to start the game. Turn on some upbeat music and have the student demonstrate any move they want, such as jumping or spinning in circles. The rest of the students must copy the move eight times. Let all the children have a turn to be the instructor.
33. British bulldogs
Choose one student to be the bulldog. He stands in the middle of the play area. The rest of the players try to get past the bulldog without getting tagged.
34. Body part tag
This game is played like traditional tag except that whatever body part gets tagged cannot be used anymore. If a student gets tagged on the arm, they cannot use their arm anymore. If he gets tagged on the leg, he has to hop on the other leg.
35. Crab Kickball
This game is played just like traditional kickball except that students must walk and play in the crab walk position.
36. Broom hockey
This is a PE game played like regular hockey except students use brooms instead of hockey sticks.
37. Hop in a hoop
Lay out several hula hoops in the play area. Have students run around the hoops while you play music. When you stop the music, students must hop into a hula hoop – one student per hoop. Students who don’t have a hoop are out.
38. Hot potato
Arrange your students in a circle and give them a small ball. They will pass the ball around the circle until you blow the whistle. The student holding the ball when the whistle blows is out.
39. Scooter tag
This PE game is played just like traditional tag except students must play by sitting on and moving around on scooters.
40. Bucketball
This game is played just like regular basketball except students use a bucket instead of the usual basketball hoop.
Break your class into small teams of 5 or 6 players. Give one student from each group a jump rope. That student will spin the jump rope on the ground while the other members of the group jump over it. If the “snake” touches a student, they are out.
42. Shipwreck or Captain Says
This is a game that puts a twist on the traditional “Simon Says.” Line your students up and start calling out commands that have to do with ships and pirates, such as “swab the deck” or “walk the plank.” Instead of saying “Simon says,” you’ll say, “Captain says.”
43. Hula hoop tag
This is another version of traditional tag. Students follow the same rules as regular tag, but they must spin a hula hoop while they run around.
44. Museum guard
This game is like freeze tag. Students will tiptoe silently around the play area pretending to sneak around a museum. When you call out “museum guard” they must freeze. Students who don’t freeze are out.
45. Mirror, Mirror
Divide your class into teams of two. Have them stand facing each other. One person does a move, and the other students must copy the move. Continue playing, encouraging students to make the movements harder and more complicated.
46. Backward tag
Play this game just like regular tag except students can only walk or run backward during play.
47. Alligators in the swamp
Choose several students to be alligators and have them lay on their stomachs in the middle of the play area. Spread them out so there are several feet between each alligator. The rest of the class starts on one end of the play area and has to try to get past the alligators. If an alligator tags them, they are out.
48. Sleeping baby
Students run around the play area until they hear the teacher yell, “sleeping baby.” At this point, all the kids drop to the floor and pretend to be sleeping. The last student to “fall asleep” is out.
49. Garbage tag
Wad up a bunch of pieces of paper to be the garbage. Choose one student to be “it.” That person starts to throw the garbage at the other players. Any player hit with a piece of garbage is out.
50. Lighthouse and ships
Place several obstacles around the gym, such as cones or mats. Students will close their eyes and pretend to be ships trying to get to the lighthouse. If they run into one of the obstacles, their ship is sunk and they are out.
PE class is about to get so much more fun for your students! Any of these games are sure to make PE their favorite class of the day.
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